The second batch with 37,000 doses of AstraZeneca vaccines should arrive in the country this month, in addition to the 12,000 that Portugal has already donated to the archipelago in July.

The announcement was made by the São Tomé minister of Health, Edgar Neves, during a two-day seminar to review the activities of the national vaccination program against Covid-19 that is taking place in the archipelago.

"We expect to receive by the end of this month [August] 37,000 doses donated by Portugal", announced the government official, adding that the country already has "guarantees from partners like China to receive more vaccines over the next few months".

São Tomé and Príncipe has set a target of vaccinating at least 70 percent of its population against Covid-19 by March 2022.

“So far we have already vaccinated 32,114 people with the first dose, and 11,873 with the two doses”, revealed the minister of Health, who announced for September the start of the second phase of vaccination.

The representative of the World Health Organization (WHO) in São Tomé and Príncipe, Anie Ancie, considered that “these coverage data place the country among those with the highest probability of reaching the World Health Assembly's target of having 10 percent of the population fully vaccinated by 2021”.

Five months ago, São Tomé and Príncipe began the process of vaccinating its population against covid-19. On 10 August, several personalities involved in the vaccination process started a two-day seminar to improve the activities of the national vaccination plan.

São Tomé and Príncipe currently has 65 active cases, all on the island of São Tomé, and a total of 37 deaths, 2,476 confirmed cases and 2,374 recovered from the disease since the beginning of the pandemic.